The transfer tale that never was. Recently the Guardian ran a piece suggesting that Inter Milan were negotiating for Tanguy Ndombele, and a source close to the club advised us that this wasn’t correct at all. Tottenham never opened talks with the Italians.
Now someone at Inter might well have thought that IF the Frenchman were to be returned to the transfer market suddenly, then the player would be a good fit at the Serie A side, that’s all well and good, but that’s frankly a million miles away from talks being underway.
As we also pointed out to readers, it was an uncharacteristic step from Tottenham’s press office that then ensued, with several journalists being fed the line that Spurs weren’t interested in selling Tanguy.
Straightforwardly, this revealed that talk of Spurs’ having lost faith in the player was potentially damaging – as there obviously had been issues.
Today, The Guardian went from “opening talks” to confessing that no official approach having been made (see below).
Inter are still interested in signing Tanguy Ndombele despite Tottenham’s insistence that the France midfielder is not for sale, although whether they will make an official approach depends on whether manager Antonio Conte’s long-term future is resolved in the coming weeks.